


Sins of the Father, Betrayals of the flesh

by Elenduen



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, Child Abuse, Gen, Howard Stark's Bad Parenting, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Non-Consensual Body Modification, Tony Stark Needs a Hug, Tony Whump
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-28
Updated: 2019-10-30
Packaged: 2021-01-06 00:27:27
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,321
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21217553
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Elenduen/pseuds/Elenduen
Summary: When Tony is injured in battle an experiment that was performed on him when he was a child comes to light and it is up to Steve to help him through the shock of what his own Father did to him.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ShadowsintheClouds](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShadowsintheClouds/gifts).

38 years ago.

Howard held his three month old infant away from his body. The boy was perfect, or so the Doctors had said when he was delivered. Ten toes, eight fingers, two thumbs, two eyes that were turning a chocolate brown having previously been blue as all babies were at birth, two ears, and a generous mouth. His scalp was dusted with black hair that was slowly growing, his skin was a golden olive hue, and his little limbs were chubby and perfectly formed. 

This would have been more than enough for most parents. A healthy baby boy. But Howard Stark was not most parents. 

Healthy was not enough.

Normal was not enough.

His Son had to be strong, had to be iron strong or he would crumble under the weight of the pressures that would be lain upon his shoulders. He had to be smarter than the rest of the world, a genius, he had to capable of things that no other could achieve. 

He had to be perfect, to have the perfection that only one man Howard had even known, had been. 

So, Howard deemed this procedure necessary even if his wife did not. 

“No Howard, you can’t do this. He doesn’t need changing, he is perfect already!” Maria’s sobbing echoed in Howard’s mind and he shook his head, willing it away from him. 

How could this mewling wretch be perfect? He cried constantly, pissed and shit himself ten or twelve times a day, wouldn’t settle, screamed with colic. He was already showing his weakness, the weakness that Howard would eliminate from him. 

He lay the infant down onto the bench stripping off the baby grow he was placed in, revealing his chubby body and securely bound nappy that for once was clean.   
The cold air in the lab made the infant whimper, he began to wriggle and his face creased as began to cry in distress. 

“Shut up.” Howard said to him, as he filled a needle and took hold of the baby’s left arm pinching the skin at the elbow to bring up the vein. The infant’s sobs grew louder at the pain but Howard ignored them, sinking the needle into the infant’s skin and emptying the syringe. 

For a moment nothing happened, then the infant began to scream and convulse….

******

Present day New York.

“Why can’t Richards and Dr Doomass make with the angry fucking and stop this bullshit?” Clint complained, as he shot down another Doombot that flew by his current perch on a rooftop. 

“Why can’t the Fuckwit Four ever be present with Victor Von Dumbfuck decides to attack New York?” Tony countered, blowing another bot out of the sky and zooming towards three more that were trying to get the jump on Natasha. As they exploded behind her she turned and inclined her head in acknowledgment. 

“I swear, every time Dr Dickwad shows up, Reed and his merry band of jackasses are off in some other dimension and we’re the ones who have to deal with whatever clusterfuck Doom has planned.”

“Chatter.” Steve said, “What have I said about the coms being for important information only?” 

“Umm, I forgot.” Clint said unhelpful as ever, 

“I wasn’t listening.” Tony added, and Steve just rolled his eyes, and got back to work, introducing the Doombots to the business end of his shield, with Thor roaring over head and taking great pleasure wrapping the Bots around Mjolnir. Hulk is leaping from building to building snatching bots out of the sky smashing into his fist or each other. 

“Maybe we can start an arrangement between super-villains and heroes.” Tony said, sounding Breathless and Steve looked up at the sky to see him fending off half a dozen bots. “Schedule attacks so that we don’t end up dealing with each-others enemies or pains in the asses, and Victor Von doom is a giant pain in the ass.”

“As you are in ours, Stark.” Natasha said drop kicking a bot, spinning around and shooting another. 

“Love you too, Tash.” Tony sing-songed back at her gleefully shooting down several more Bots, only to take a heavy blast to the side himself. 

“Tony!” Steve cried as he saw the Iron Man drop from the sky, the repulsors failing and then sparking back to life just before he hit a rooftop. 

“This victory shall be Dooms.” Doom said as he appeared in the sky with dozens more bots surrounding him. 

“Doom can go fuck himself.” Clint spat turning his arrows on the dictator and his bots which began to bear down on them with increased fury. These were more advanced than the ones they had been fighting. 

“Fiend, thou shalt not prevail this day!” Thor bellowed flying towards Doom knocking bots out of the way so he could strike at Doom. The Dictator flew back blasting energy beams at him, Thor roared gleefully casting off the blows with Mjolnir, taking out Bots and advancing on Doom. He brought Mjolnir down upon the dictator as Doom fired at him, the energy bounced off Mjolnir in a high arch shooting out across the sky and hitting the Arc reactor powering the Iron Man armour. 

At once the suit became dead weight and Tony plummeted from the sky smashing down into the side of a sky scrapper, shattering brick work and continuing on his way down to the ground where he struck the pavement so hard that it dented and cracked. 

“Stark!” Clint yelled,

“Tony respond.” Steve cried, seeing the too still Iron Man suit on the ground, unmoving, and still not response over the coms. “Cover him!” He yelled, taking out Bots with greater swiftness. 

“Tin Man.” Hulk bellowed leaping down onto the street to protect Iron Man, snarling at the bots who came close to him. 

Steve cursed wanting to get to Tony and not being able. The battle seemed to be lasting too long, the minutes stretching out and Tony still not moving, still not making a sound over the coms, just laying there on the ground. 

On and on he fought until finally he managed to defeat the Bots in his vicinity and ran to Tony. He fell to his knees besides him, carefully reaching out to take the dented face plate off so he could see Tony’s face. 

“Cap don’t move him, if he has spinal damage moving him will only make it worse.” Natasha warned her voice breathless and strained.

“I won’t.” Steve said staring at the bloody, pale face, “Come on Tony, be alright.” He said reaching out and taking a gauntlet covered hand, “Fight for me shellhead, don’t leave me.” 

*****

Tony was taken to Shield medical as soon as the battle was over. His armour was carefully stripped from him and his body secured onto a stretched with a neck brace to protect his spine. 

Steve paced the halls with the others as they waited for news from the Doctors, who had been babbling about broken bones, internal bleeds, and medical jargon that meant nothing to Steve but Bruce seemed to comprehend it and sank down into a chair, hunching over looking pensive. 

Steve hadn’t dared ask for an explanation, fearing what he might be told. 

Hours past with Steve growing more and more fearful until finally the Doctors and Director Fury approached them, their expressions grave, which immediately had Steve fearing the worst.

“What is it?” Natasha asked, straightening up from where she had been leaning against the wall.

“Is Tony alright?” Clint asked moving to stand at her side.

“He is recovering.” The Doctor said a frown on his face, “He has suffered many injuries, he should not have survived, the rupture in his aorta along should have taken his life…”

“But he’s alright, he’s going to live?” Steve asked dismissing anything but that.

“Yes, he’ll recover.” The Doctor confirmed, “He has several injuries, the ruptured aorta as I said, also a ruptured spleen, collapsed lung, broken left humourus, a fractured left hip, and an open fracture to the Tibia and Fibula.” 

“Indeed the Man of Iron is greatly wounded.” Thor said bowing his head.

“How did he survive?” Bruce asked, “He should have bled to death from his aorta alone.” Steve shot him a dark look but it was Fury who spoke. 

“We are looking into this, a full blood work is being done right now.” 

Natasha narrowed her eyes as she looked at Fury, “You already suspect what is wrong with Stark.”

“I suspect many things, Agent Romanov, but I rarely act without evidence to support them.” Fury countered, not really answering her question at all. “As I’ve said, his blood work is being done, we’ll have more answers once it comes back.” 

“Fury…” Clint growled looking ready to argue but Natasha placed a restraining hand on his arm and shook her head. Steve stepped forward then, lifting his chin in defiance, his tone brooking no argument.

“We want to see him, now.” 

*****

Tony was lain on a bed attached to monitors and drips, his chest covered in bandages, his left and leg in casts. He was too pale, his face mottled in bruising and swollen about his eyes and cheeks, with a dark cut stretching down from his forehead.

“What do his charts say?” Natasha asked as Bruce picked it up to start reading it.

“His white cell count is abnormally high. Yet he showed no signs of prior illness or injury, not even a minor infection or virus that his body could have been fighting. He also responded to treatment with far greater speed than would have been expected. Remarkable speed in fact.” 

“What could cause that?” Thor asked, as he leaned his weight against Mjolnir looking reverently at Tony. 

“I don’t know.” Bruce said shrugging his shoulders and placed the chart back onto the bed. 

“I’ll bet Fury does.” Clint growled, “He knows what they’re looking for in Stark’s blood, he just isn’t saying anything.”

“So long as Tony is alright, nothing else matters.” Steve said, taking a seat on Tony’s right side and took hold of his hand, “That is the only thing that matters now. 

******

Tony was aching everywhere, from the top of his head to the tips of his toes he was aching. He let out a groan, blinking open sleep sticky eyes he winced at the bright lights of shield medical which were bearing down upon him. 

“Don’t try to move, you need to lay still.” Bruce said, Tony recognized his eyes and flicked his eyes down, seeing him and the others around his bed, Steve was at his side, holding his hand and giving him a gentle smile. His youthful face was lined in worry and Tony wished he could stretch out and sooth those lines away. But his body was effectively pinned to the bed by the casts on his leg and arm. 

“What happened?” He asked, trying to wet his lips but his tongue was dry until Bruce moved a cup with a straw to his lips and he was able to drink down water.

“Doom’s energy weapons bounced off Thor’s hammer and hit the arc reactor.” Natasha said, “You fell over fifty feet and hit a building on the way down. That broke the fall somewhat and with the armour, probably saved your life.”

“I apologise, Man of Iron.” Thor said shame faced and saddened, “I should have taken greater care in defeating Doom, then you would not have been hurt.”

Tony shook his head, or tried to but he didn’t have that much movement in his neck and had to settled for a smile. “Not your fault.” He said. 

“We were all very worried though.” Steve said, giving Tony a tremulous smile and the Billionaire squeezed his hand to let him know that he was alright and wasn’t going anywhere. 

“I need a sharpie.” Clint declared out of the blue. 

“Why?” Natasha asked sounding exasperated. 

“So I can write on his casts.” Clint replied bouncing on the balls of his feet looking gleeful at the prospect of writing lewd jokes and filthy images all over Tony’s casts. 

“Oh fuck no.” Tony said, “Feather head is not allowed near my casts.” He said to Steve, “You have to protect the sanctity of my casts, it is Captain America’s duty to protect them and my dignity!”

Steve’s eyebrows rose and he opened his mouth in bewilderment while Bruce snorted, “Do you have any dignity left to loose at this point?” he asked Tony, who shrugged.

“I have enough not to let Bird brain draw all over me.” 

“Hey!” Clint cried, “I’ll have you know that I am famous for my graffiti, I am master of the decorative walls and the backs of doors.”

“Which the shield bathrooms can attest to.” Fury drawled as he joined them in Tony’s room, slapping the back of Clint’s head as he want past him, with the Doctor who was over seeing Tony’s case, following at his heels like an obedient dog. “Stark,” the director acknowledged, “It’s good to see you’re awake.” 

“Aww Nicky, were you worried about me?” Tony teased blowing Fury a kiss just to piss the man off. 

“No Stark, I was worried for Rogers.” Fury replied, “For some reason he likes you and would be deeply hurt by your loss, where I would be celebrating.” 

Tony shot him a leer which the Director returned as Steve stammered, his cheeks flushed red as he tried to protest Fury’s words, while assuring Tony of how important he was. 

“Give it up honey, Fury’s an asshole, in fact he’s a professional asshole.” Tony said. 

“Takes one to know one Stark.” Fury shot back and Natasha cleared her throat. 

“I assume you have reason for being here other than to share insults with Stark, Sir?”

“I do, Agent Romanoff,” Fury said and for a moment he actually looked sympathetic at Tony, “We ran some blood work on you and something quite unexpected showed up.”

This got Tony’s attention and he immediately tried to sit up wincing in pain but refusing to stay laying down and shuffled up the bed so he was propped up by pillows. 

“What?” he asked, breathing heavily and rubbing at his aching torso, “Did you find?” 

Fury opened his mouth to speak and then thought better of it, turning to the Doctor who cleared his throat. 

“You came here very severely wounded, Mr Stark. You shouldn’t have lived, your aorta was ruptured and you should have bled out, you also responded very swiftly to treatment, far swifter than you should have given how gravely ill you were.” He explained, “We decided to run a blood panel on you to see what was going on and we found that your white cell count was far greater than normal yet you had no prior injury or illness to have caused this. So we have looked further into your blood work and found similarities to the blood work of Captain Rogers.”

“Steve?” Tony frowned looking to the Captain who was equally perplexed. “What the hell?” 

“The similarities were found are like that of the super soldier serum.” The Doctor said, “It is not identical but very similar, it seems to effect your immune system and strengthen your healing, but does not give you greater strength as it has the Captain, maybe because it isn’t identical to the super soldier serum.”

Silence fell in the room as everyone looked at Tony, at the Doctor, and at Fury. 

“It can’t be true.” Tony said, shaking his head, “I’ve never shot myself up with anything like that, or been shot up with anything like that.”

“Are you sure about this?” Bruce asked the Doctor, “It couldn’t have been a natural occurring mutation?” 

“I’m afraid not, Doctor Banner, it is clearly synthetic in origin but has been present in Mr Stark’s blood for a long time.” The Doctor said, “We also have an idea of when and how it was administered to you, Mr Stark.”

“How?” Steve growled, hating the idea of someone doing this to Tony, even if it had saved his life, this had been done against his will, had been effectively poisoning him, risking his life had he reacted badly, and the pain he’d likely have suffered…

“We pulled your medical records.” Fury said, “We went all the back to your infancy, and it seems that at three months old you were rushed to hospital with unexplained convulsions and bleeding from the ears and nose. You were admitted to the paediatric ward immediately and over the next five days you developed a fever that rose to 108 degrees. You continued to bleed and convulse, Doctors feared the worst, but on the sixth day the fever broke and the bleeding and convulsions stopped. No cause for the affliction were ever established and you were released from hospital three days later.”

Again silence filled the room as every one took in the information and began to draw the only conclusion they could. At three months old very few people would have had access to Tony, and only one person would have had the skill to develop a formula similar to super soldier serum. 

Howard Stark. 

Steve felt sick, he felt the bile rose up the back of his throat and had to force it back down. He heard Natasha say something Russian and Clint swear under his breath. Bruce made hasty excuses and beat a retreat from the room to go and calm down or find somewhere to let Hulk out for a while, Thor was gripping Mjolnir and looked torn between rage and tears. Tony however, he was ashen, all the colour had drained from his face, and he was shaking all over as he glared down the bed. 

“Tony…” Steve whispered having to force the name past the thick lump in his throat.

“Get out.” Tony hissed his breathing growing louder as his agitation grew until he was screaming, “Get out, get out, GET OUT!”


	2. Chapter 2

38 years ago

“What have you done, what have you done?” Maria screamed at Howard, as he carried the convulsing Tony out of his lab. The boy was no longer crying, but his convulsions were worsening and his nose and ears were bleeding. 

“It should have worked.” Howard said, letting Maria take the baby from him, “He must be weaker than I thought, he shouldn’t be reacting like this.” 

“We have to take him to hospital.” Maria cried, trying to sooth Tony.

“No.” Howard said, “He’ll be fine, just… wipe up the blood.”

“He might die!” Maria shouted, “Look at him, look at what you have done!” Maria held out Tony to Howard to show him the twisting shaking body with blood smearing his flesh, “We have to take him to a Doctor or I swear to God Howard Stark, I will see you spending the rest of your life in prison for this.”

Howard scoffed, sneering at his wife, but his eyes held a trace of fear at being charged for harming his infant Son.   
“Fine,” He snapped, “Take him, but tell them only that he is ill, say nothing of the serum Maria, or I swear I will make you regret it.”

Shaking and gritting her teeth, Maria turned on her heel, hurrying to grab a blanket to wrap Tony in and shouted for Jarvis to get the car to take her to the hospital. 

Swearing under his breath Howard headed back down to his lab to write up a report on this failure. He’d been sure that this would work, sure he’d gotten the serum right this time. But no, once again he was faced with failure, just as his Son would no doubt prove to be.

*****

Present day

Steve looked up as Natasha slammed a worn leather journal down onto the table top before him and took a seat opposite him. He was sat in the cafeteria staring into a half empty cup of hot chocolate that had gone cold, an uneaten sandwich was before him along with an untouched slice of cake which Natasha took from the tray, picked up the plastic fork and dig into the cake taking a bite which she wrinkled her nose at and pushed the dessert away.   
“Too dry.” She said. 

“It’s been sitting out for a while.” Steve murmured. He looked at the leather book, “What’s this?” 

“Howard Stark’s journal, or one of them.” Natasha said, helping herself to Steve’s sandwich and finding it more palatable than his cake. “It’s from the time when Tony was born and covers his experiment upon him.” 

Steve grit his teeth and shook his head, “How did he become this?” he asked, not really speaking to Natasha, more just speaking aloud, “The man I knew would never have done such a thing. Risking his own Son’s life, experimenting on him like that.” Steve shook his head again, “I just don’t understand.”

Natasha shrugged, “There were many years between the time you knew Howard Stark and the birth of Tony, almost thirty years in fact, and people change and not always for the better.”

“But it was evil.” Steve stressed, “Completely evil.”

“I do not disagree, I read the journal, he refers to Tony as The Infant, rather than his Son or by name. He also continued to examine Tony after he recovered, testing him, his reflexes, tolerance for pain, endurance, healing. He goes into detail of how swiftly Tony healed from a broken arm when he was nine months old, I can only hazard a guess as to how the limb was broken.” 

“Jesus.” Steve spat, “He tortured his own Son.”

“So it would seem.” 

Both Natasha and Steve looked up as Bruce joined them, looking tired and glum, “He’s still refusing food, won’t let the Doctor’s near him, and if his leg was strong enough to manage it, he would have already walked out of the infirmary.” He was talking of Tony of course. 

The Billionaire had been inconsolable since he had learned of his Father’s experimentation. He wouldn’t have any of the Avengers near him, wouldn’t eat or drink, and screamed bloody murder if the Doctors tried to touch him. 

“If he goes on like this for another day they’ll have to sedate him and fit him with a feeding tube and an IV or he’ll become dehydrated and malnourished.” The Doctor sighed. 

“That won’t help him, not emotionally.” Natasha said, “We need to get through to him, speak with him so he’ll see sense.”

“Easier said than done.” Bruce said, “He won’t listen. Both Pepper and Rhodes have tried and been refused, he’s not even listening to Jarvis, and he always listens to Jarvis.” 

Both Pepper and Rhodey had been furious when they had been told of Howard’s actions and what had been done to Tony. Had Howard been alive then they would have both torn him limb from limb, skinned him, and boiled anything that remained in oil. They had tried to comfort Tony, tried to make him see that this changed nothing, that they loved him regardless but Tony would have none of it, turning his back on them and refusing to speak. 

Steve stood, resolved to help Tony. He couldn’t change the past, couldn’t stop what Howard had already done, but he could ensure that Tony suffered no more than he already had. 

“I’m going to see him,” he said to Natasha and Bruce, “I’ll get through to him.” 

Natasha and Bruce watched as he marched away, shoulders back and head raised as if he were going heading to war. 

“Do you think he can do it?” Bruce asked.

Natasha rose an eyebrow, “Can anyone say no to Captain America?” 

*****

Tony lay listless in bed. He wanted to get up and get out of Shield Medical, but his leg had yet to finish healing, something the Doctors estimated would be done in a month rather than the three months that normal people would have to wait. 

Tony supposed he should see that as a blessing, he wouldn’t be bed bound of wheelchair bound for months on end as a normal person would. But he couldn’t see this as a blessing right now, could only see it for what it was. 

That Howard had seen him as too weak and too inferior and had tried to fix him. Had experimented on him and nearly killed him. 

He could recall Howard taking him into the workshop as a child, jabbing him with electrodes, sticking him with pins, making hold burning or freezing items in his hands then recording the data of Tony’s injuries and his healing. He’d been too young to understand it at the time, but now he knew it was Howard testing to see if the serum had an effect on him. 

Had Maria known what Howard was doing to him? Had she cared at all what her Son was going through? By the time he’d been old enough to remember, Maria had been pretty much lost in a Valium fuelled haze and hadn’t been able to notice anything at all. 

“You are my greatest creation” 

Fuck. Those words had even more meaning to them now. 

Bastard, bastard mother fuck Howard, and Tony needed a drink, dear God he needed a drink, and he didn’t mean a soft drink either. 

A knock came at the door and he swore, “I’m not hungry, leave me the fuck alone.”

“You must be hungry, you haven’t eaten in days.” Steve said as he came into the room, shutting door behind him and proceeded to sat himself in the chair besides the bed. Fuck, great, that meant he wouldn’t be going anywhere anytime soon. 

“I know you’re hurting Tony, I can’t imagine what this must be like for you. But you are not alone, we’re all here for you, me, Pepper, Rhodey, the whole team, hell even Fury is behind you on this.” Steve said, reaching out to take Tony’s hand, the Billionaire made to pull away but Steve was too fast, and his cast covered arm was held in Steve’s warm hand, the Super Soldier’s sparkling eye meeting his and Tony had to look away. 

“Talk to me.” Steve said, placing his other hand over Tony’s and keeping the other firmly wrapped about the cast so Tony couldn’t pull away, “Please?”

“What’s there to say?” Tony asked. “Howard turned me into a freak.” 

“You are not a freak.”

“That’s exactly what I am.” Tony cried, finally meeting Steve’s eyes, “Normal people don’t heal like this, normal people don’t have huge white cell counts, normal people don’t survive having their spleen and aorta rupture inside, of getting their chest full of friggin’ shrapnel.” He snorted, “Guess now I know how I survived open chest surgery in a fucking cave. Anyone else would have bled out or died of blood poisoning, but not me, I get to live with having a lump of metal in my chest cavity, hell, maybe I can survive without the reactor, maybe I’ll survive the shrapnel tearing my heart to pieces, God knows I’ve been told often enough that I don’t have one anyway…”

“Enough!” Steve bellowed his shout being enough to cut off Tony’s rant, “That is enough.” He said in a calmer tone, “You need to stop doing this to yourself, thinking of yourself this way, it isn’t right and it isn’t true Tony.”

“What isn’t…”

“You are not a freak, you do have a heart. I know you have a heart because I know how much it is breaking right now and I know that because mine is breaking too for seeing you in so much pain.”

“I’m not in pain.” Tony scoffed, “Howard made sure I couldn’t suffer pain.”

“Will you stop?” Steve snapped managing again to shut Tony up, “What Howard did to you was cruel and perverse, and just plain evil, and if I could go back in time and break both of his arms for him and wring his neck then I would.” He sighed and let go of Tony’s hand to reach up and cup his cheek, “But I can’t do that,” He said stroking his thumb over Tony’s stubbled cheek, “What can do is be here for you, and make sure you don’t destroy yourself because of what that bastard did to you.” 

Tony couldn’t help but to lean into Steve’s touch, to feel the walls he’d had built up crumble when he was met with that honest gaze. “How can I not?” He whispered, “How can you even bear to touch me?”

“What do you mean? You are still you, Tony. You just have a few extra goodies, but you are still my Tony, nothing will change that. Not Howard, not white blood cells, not even puss leaking sores the size of a tomato growing over your skin!”

“Eeeeww, fucking gross Rogers.” Tony cried cringing at the thought.

“Made you smile though, didn’t it?”   
Tony stiffened, realizing that yes, he was smiling. 

“Will you let me help you now?” Steve asked, “Let the team help you and stop pushing all of those who love you away?” 

Tony wanted to say yes, he really did, but the truth was he didn’t know how to do that, and admitted as much to Steve. 

“Well first you can start eating and drinking again, you can be honest when we ask how you are feeling, and you can just let us be around you.” Steve said, “The rest will take care of itself.” 

“I suppose.” Tony murmured looking at the tray table containing something bland and likely tasteless, “Okay, I’ll eat.” He said and Steve immediately brightened, “So long as you get me a cheese burger!”

****

Tony was released from medical in a wheelchair a few days later and went back to the tower, where he was allowed on crutches a week after that, and an air cast a week later, within the month his bones were completely healed and he was moving as easily as if he had never been injured at all. 

He was uncertain with the team, Pepper, and Rhodey at first. Unsure of how he should be and how they would react to him, but as time passed and they carried on being how they had always been, (Inspirational and academically stimulating, Bruce.) (Annoying and cute. Clint.) (Adorable and fun. Thor.) (Terrifying and amazingly astute, Natasha.) (Impossibly honourable and beyond sexy, Steve.)   
(Protective and supportive, Rhodey.) (Astounding, and amazing, Pepper.) Tony soon found his footing again as he realized that as far as they were concerned, nothing had changed, he was still Tony Stark. 

Genius, Billionaire, ex-Playboy (He was a one super soldier Man these days) Philanthropist. Junk food addict, caffeine addict, workaholic, and possessor of the best ass in America if not the world (Okay he might be exaggerating there.) He also had the best boyfriend in the whole world, who somehow managed to put up with all of his bullshit, and had sweettalked his AI and Bots into allowing him to kidnap Tony from the workshop and carry him to bed when he felt he’d been away for too long. 

“I should protest at being man handled like this.” Tony said, as he lay in Steve’s arms bride style, “I’m not a Princess you know.”

“Really? Could have fooled me.”

“Sass will not get you into my pants, Captain.” Tony sniffed haughtily.

“No, but I’ll bet groping your ass will!” 

“Steven Rogers!” Tony mock gasped, “You are supposed to be above such lewd and depraved things, what would America say if they knew their golden boy was such a pervert?” 

“Probably what I am going to say right now.”

“Oh, and what’s that, Precious?”

“Shut up Tony.”

“Make me.”

“My pleasure.” And Steve did proceed to just that, making sure Tony was far beyond words for the rest of the night and most of the following morning.


End file.
